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Rainy Sunday Ramblings

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I was just reading on Facebook where a woman had fallen from a local hiking spot while she was attempting to rescue her dogs who had fallen as well. A rescue team had to be called in to retrieve her (and her dogs) from the ledge. The woman is in serious condition in hospital. The comments on the posting made me, once again, question where we're going as a human race. The area was not an off-leash area and she shouldn't have let her dogs go free, but still. Wow. Some people make decisions that aren't the best. But do we really need to be so insulting?

In bigger news, there continues to be so much shit going on in the world. We have gotten to a place where people are so scared for their lives they shoot first and ask questions later. Mass shootings, police shootings, black shootings. Ugh.

The media has to have SUCH a part to play in this. 100 years ago, hell, 20 years ago, if there was an incident it would get some limited time it the public light and it would go away. In some ways, it's done great things. Look at thing like the gay movement. As the people have more platforms to come out of the closet and be who they are. Social media has given voice to hundreds and thousands of people wouldn't have been able to know there is so much support out there for them.

On the other hand, every time somebody shoots somebody, it too sets an example for somebody to do the same thing. And everybody knows about it instantly.

After the video was posted about the young man being shot for having a broken tail light, I'd posted a "black lives matter" picture.

Yes. I know there's more to it than a simple statement "black lives matter." There's history and things you don't see in a video. For both sides. A friend of mine commented that "all lives matter". And I agreed. My sister jumped on that quicker than shit. It is NOT all lives matter. It's black lives matter. And railed on about how saying "all lives matter" denigrates the Black Lives Matter movement, and basically makes you a racist.

Hmm...

Then, all of those police officers were shot in Dallas. I changed my picture to say "pro black, pro cop. All lives matter." And waited.

You see. ALL LIVES MATTER.

Yanno what? EVERYBODY matters. But if you walk into a waiting room at an emergency centre, you'll see maybe 50 people in different states of injury or illness. Some may have splinters. Some may have lost an arm. Some might just be hypochondriacs looking for attention. But ya know what? EVERY FRICKIN ONE of those people deserve to be seen by a healthcare provider. And to be clear, the guy with his arm in his lap should be seen to first. Saying All Lives Matter does NOT negate black people, or cops or people from Somalia, or your Uncle Larry or even, god forbid, Donny Trump. Right here, right now, it's me saying ALL LIVES MATTER. We just gotta put the right emphasis on the moment's urgent cases and do what we can to make sure nobody else's arms get torn off.

And part of that is to quick bickering at every single word people say. Stop LOOKING for something to pick apart just because you can. It may give you a moment's happiness because you've proven yourself smarter than the next guy, but you've caused a hurt, that very well could result in somebody's arm falling off.

I an an admin at a local online news site and so I HAVE to read the comments: our aim is to keep it civil, and there are certain people who never got that message. The people who love our site would be aghast if they saw the stuff that I (and the other admins) unapproved before they had much exposure time.

The media? I don't know - it's the media's job to cover news. Unfortunately, that brings us a huge number of people aiming to fulfill Andy Warhol's prophecy. A side effect exacerbated by the internet and instant fame.

And part of that is to quick bickering at every single word people say. Stop LOOKING for something to pick apart just because you can. It may give you a moment's happiness because you've proven yourself smarter than the next guy, but you've caused a hurt, that very well could result in somebody's arm falling off.

Someone said that one of the biggest problems we have today is that everyone feels they need to have an opinion on every subject, and to express that opinion. I'll buy that.